Chart interactions in a data visualization

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Chart interactions in a data visualization

    ServiceNow allows you to configure interactions within data visualizations that determine what happens when users click or select parts of a chart, such as bars, pie segments, or time series points. These interactions enhance dashboard usability by enabling navigation, filtering, and drill-down capabilities directly from the chart elements.

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    Chart interactions are configured in the data visualization’s configuration panel under the "Chart interaction" section, where you set the "on-click behavior." This controls the user experience when interacting with chart segments. It is important to note that chart interactions cannot be configured on technical dashboards or other UI Builder pages, where only enabling or disabling drilldowns is possible.

    Key Features

    • Go to data view: Opens a detailed data view relevant to the clicked value. This is the default for most supported data sources except User Experience Analytics.
    • Go to URL: Opens a specified internal or external URL when a chart segment is clicked. This is the default for User Experience Analytics data sources.
    • Apply as filter: Filters all applicable visualizations on the dashboard by the selected value. This feature is limited to horizontal/vertical bar and pie/donut charts using table or indicator data sources. It is not available in UI Builder or when grouping by time duration.
    • Drill down to chart: Opens a related, filtered data visualization based on the selected data point. This enables hierarchical exploration of data but is only configurable in the Visualization Designer and limited to table data sources. It is not supported on calendar, geomap, indicator scorecard, or list visualizations.

    The availability of these interactions depends on the data visualization type and data source, with a specific support matrix guiding their applicability.

    Practical Usage for ServiceNow Customers

    By setting appropriate chart interactions, you can make dashboards more interactive and intuitive, improving data exploration and decision-making workflows. For example, enabling "Apply as filter" allows users to dynamically filter dashboard content by clicking chart elements, while "Drill down to chart" facilitates detailed analysis through linked visualizations.

    To configure these interactions, access the chart interaction section within the visualization settings and select the desired behavior. Remember, for technical dashboards or UI Builder pages, interaction options are limited and require different configuration approaches.

    You can set what occurs when a user interacts with a chart, such as by selecting a bar column. Possibilities include navigating to a URL, opening another data visualization, and filtering all visualizations on the dashboard by the selected value.

    The configuration panel of a data visualization includes a section labeled Chart interaction. In this section, you set what is called "on-click behavior." This term refers to what happens when a user interacts with a segment of the chart that represents a value. Examples include selecting a point on a time series or a segment of a pie or donut. You can also disable chart interactions for the visualization.

    Important:
    You cannot configure chart interactions for data visualizations on technical dashboards or other UI Builder pages. You can turn chart interactions on or off with the Enable drilldowns toggle, but you cannot otherwise change them. Instead, you have to configure handlers for on-click events. For information about configuring drilldowns from data visualizations on a technical dashboard, see Add a drilldown event to a data visualization on a technical dashboard.

    The following actions are available for a chart interaction:

    Go to data view
    Opens a view of the data appropriate to the data type. For information about the views for each data source, see Data views for different data sources.
    Note:
    Go to data view is the default interaction for all supported data sources. User Experience Analytics data is not supported.
    Go to URL
    Opens the URL you specify. This URL can be on the instance or external to it. Where relevant, you can specify the name of the page that is opened in a tooltip. Go to URL is the default interaction for User Experience Analytics data sources.
    Apply as filter
    Filters all applicable data visualizations on the dashboard by the value of the selected segment. Does not apply when the Group by field is a time duration. Available only for Horizontal and Vertical Bar and Pie/Donut visualizations, and only for table and indicator data sources. Not available on UI Builder. For more information, see Make a data visualization act as a filter.
    Drill down to chart
    Opens a different data visualization that is filtered by the selected data. You can add a drill-down visualization for each metric on the parent visualization. You configure this new drill-down visualization seamlessly as part of the process of configuring the chart interaction.
    Note:
    Drill down to chart has the following limitations:
    • You cannot configure Drill down to chart in the inline dashboard editor, only in the Visualization Designer.
    • Drill down to chart is available only for table data sources.
    • You cannot set drill down to chart from the Calendar, Geomap, Indicator scorecard, or List visualizations. However, you can drill down from supported visualizations to any visualization that can display table data.
    Different chart interactions support different data sources and data visualization types. The following table shows the matrix of support.
    Table 1. Chart interaction support
    Action Supported data visualizations Supported data sources
    Go to data view All All that the visualization supports except User Experience Analytics
    Go to URL All except Geomap and Indicator Scorecard All that the visualization supports
    Apply as filter (Available only in inline dashboard editor)
    • Horizontal and Vertical Bar
    • Pie and Donut
    		 Table and indicator
    Drill down to chart (Available only in Visualization Designer) All except Calendar, Indicator scorecard, List, and Geomap Table